its cool top see the replys.........mostly ol timers I grew up in Anaheim , California.Santa Ana Drags was still open, My friend's dad had a roadster with a Flatty he raced at Santa Ana, i started going with them , got to "wipe" the tires down before each run, and help push start it. I thought it was the neatest thing since sliced bread. I was 14 !! Have had the "bug" ever since.Stan Betz was our local "Guru" in town, he had a small louver shop then. Every now and then "Von dutch " would appear to stripe one of Stan's cars. Still friends with Stan, he still has that great smile and even though he doesnt own Betz Speed and Color now he sits behind the shop every day mixin paint. I asked him about a month ago why.......he replied "cause i love it, and guys like you drop in to say hi" made me feel good!
Started handing wrenches and washing parts as a little kid 6 or 7 years old. Started working (for money) during summertimes at twelve. Drove Dad's '49/51 Chev/GMC hybrid 3/4T to high school at 17. Got a '52 Customline about the time I graduated. Actually got my first hot rod put together (after a number of aborted attempts) at 21. Finally made it to a drag strip at 28. Am finally getting a garage of my own at 38. You could make the case that I've been involved for about thirty years, or you could make the case that I've only been dabbling, and haven't "lived the life" at all. However you spin it, I've always liked damn near anything with an engine, and probably always will.
In 1952, I was just learning to talk, my mother tells me that I pointed to a billboard that had no text, just the Ford logo and I said, "Car". The same they took a picture of me reaching up to the tailgate chain on Grandpas 1937 Ford pickup. I still have that 37 Ford. I also have Grandpas 1954 Ford and his 1940 farm tractor
heres a blast from the past.... a good high school friend Dave williams who now owns Lo Buck Tools he used to deliver paint for Stanley in this
been on the fringe of hotrodding from about 10 when my stepdad dragged home a ford a cut down kinda a cross between a pickup and tractor. A sedan body shortened into a truck cab on a shortened frame with huge rear end of some kind the ultimate big n littles cause the rears were something like 30"rims end of the frame took old tractor impliments .It was mine to do what ever I wanted to. at 14 he would bring me every saturday to the local club house where I became a Junior member and got exposed to legit hotrodding I own this clubs A/Altered which was my job to clean etc.back then I'm now trying to rebuild it I've been inbetween Traditional rodding and muscle cars anyone with a coupe/roadster was older than me by a few years and later anybody with a factory muscle car had more money than I did .I'm 52 on 2-3-06and since finding the HAMB its like those first days at the club the BUG has bitten real bad to build old style rod so I'm collecting everything I can get that might be usable and spending lots of time right here at "the club"listening to the older?guys just like I was 14 again remember when you were 14 and the older guy was 16 with ANY car!
My Dad worked for a Ford dealer and the first thing I remember about that place is riding a creeper down the middle of that shop. That was about 1952. Remember his first Hot Rod books, they were 49 I think. Then all the little pages, Still got them. Built modles from about age 8. Built my own bike at 9. But my first real car work was about age 16 when a friend of mine had a 59 Ford wagon. We sanded it and his Dad was going to paint it. He started and made a mess of it. I said let me try and that was my first paint job. Only had a run on the long crease on each front fender. Ben saving tin from the crusher ever since. That is something over 50 years.
I'm actually don't know,,, but since my firs visit to USA (Phoenix AZ), I released the true life is High High Life. I think you who Hwo know me know what I mean. No life is like Miller High Life!! Hii from Lars.
been Livin it for about 23 yrs. My dad was a rod builder from way back. Custom built frames and other metal fabrication for about 40 years. I picked it up here and there until i was about 12 and the went full force until a year ago when the big bad snow came through and destroyed our shop and severly damaging five rods. We was in the proccess of rebuilding the roof when in my dad slipped and fell to his death in May of 05'. Its now jan. and it still isn't finished...kinda hard to get motivated after that. But gotta keep on the tradition I'm 23 and hope to at least accomplish half of what he did in his short time here! Sorry for the sob story, That's probebly not what you was getting at but thats my story. Thanks
I'm 53, at 15 I bought my first car a 57 Chevy 2 door cost 25 bucks. Used to sneek that out on the roads till I turned 16 then I drove the crap out of it. Ever since then if it had a motor I wanted it, took a time out from cars when I bought my first sportster at 18, cars all of a sudden were slow, but required, living in tundra land six months of the year, so it was on to trucks, had quite a few 50 to 100 dollar gems that always needed something. About twenty years ago I started to get the bug to build some nice stuff and now I restore old motorcycles and cut up old cars.
I dunno I'm a little past the half century mark. Built my first car in '68, but was hangin' at the shop with the Ol' Man and his buddies way before that, maybe that's why I could build my first car in '68. I think its not a matter of time but quality, I see a lot of these younger guys buildin' the chit that should be being built by guys with my age and experience. quality chit.
I started taking stuff apart as early as I can remember. As far as hot rods go, I got serious about it 4 years ago. I aint looking back either. trey
Went to my 1st 'hot rod show' at 9. Been hooked ever since. Had a couple dark years with two mini trucks (at least one had a 400 hp SBC) but always craved a hot rod.
im an OG.... this is me with my first car on the lift...dad had to "add on" parts for me to "take off" and me with the 48 pan and triumph
I was 8 yrs old in 1980 when Dad drug home a $300 1940 Master 85 Chevy coupe body and frame. Dad had never worked on cars either (other than oil changes), but he built models and read Hot Rod mags in his younger days. He always wanted a hot rod, so he just decided to jump in with both feet, and build one. I spent every weekend in the garage handing him wrenches, and I learned right along side him, as we both got a real "hands on" education. That did it for me... I was hooked! I gotta find old pics of that car and post one of these days. Nothing fancy... 283, PG, 57 Chev rear, stock suspension... a real low buck, home built effort done by a total amatuer. I thought it was the coolest thing ever!
My dad was a short fat guy...(I'm now a tall, fat guy...I'm looking at 52 in a few months)... Anyways, he figured I could climb underneath the family's 58 ford to pull the oil pan drain plug easier than he could...so I must have been about 10 then...Dad wasn't a car guy, but he had all the old cars when they were old cars....31, 32, and 35 Chevys, 35 Ford, 48 Pontiac and Chevys...He learned how to change oil and do brakes, etc. Basic maintenance...nothing more... I myself dug up my grandfather's 30 Ford Model A Tudor chassis out of the dirt behind the barn..I was 16 in 1971....it was new in 30 and he junked it in 40...bought a 34 5 Window ...drove that thru the war years... Dad said that if he knew anyone would ever want it, he'd have stuck it inside the barn for me... That 30 chassis along with a rolling junker 30 coupe and another 30 Coupe that was torch channelled became the basis of my old car hobby that will continue until the day I die...The 30 chassis of my grandfather's now carries a homebuilt 28 Woodie body that my sons and I built in 1999... My friends call me A-Bone...and I probably will never have any other Hot Rod than a Model A Ford... Mark aka Abonecoupe31
I think it was around 1960 when I bought a 50 merc without an engine and before I could drive planned on building that but did not. ended up with a 41 ford at the age of 16 and been hooked on the old ones ever since although I had a few muscle cars also along with my oldies.
I'm 44 and started with model cars at about 7 and started working on my first car at 14 and haven't stopped since!
The earliest I remember of having an interest in old cars was 14. I would beg my mother and her girlfriend to take me cruzn on Second Ave in ElCajon, CA and they would. My Dad was aboard ship in the Navy for 9 months that year. I couldn't get enough of looking at all the cars. I started saving my babysitting money and at the age of 16 I bought my first "project" car and started working on it. I had no clue to what I was doing. I just knew "bondo" fixed rust holes so I started slapping it on. I used red oxide primer because I didn't know primer came in any other color. My Dad by this time was retired with 20 years in the Navy and our family had moved "back" to Michigan and Dad had started working at the Ford Motor Company which didn't leave any garage time to help or guide me, not that he would have known what he was doing either. I was on my own. I have had some sort of old ragtop to cruzn in and work on ever since. A few years later my Firebird convert turned out better. I did have some help with this one. By this time I knew my limitations
All my life.Back in 1988 my dad, mom, and my cuz(Harrison). Went to the nats in Kentucky mom was pregnent with me. Gone to shows all my life and stayed in the shop everynight right beside my dad, every since i could walk.
started my 32 coupe in 79 when I was 13!!! with dear old dad! still got it !! and drive it to the races !!and race it every chance I get
thanks to my grandparents...who at 2 weeks old bought me toy metal cars....since I was born thanks to pops....I'm now 26
Ive been into "cars" since i can remember. dont have much idea where it came from it just kinda grew as i grew. got my first car when i was 14 (i wont say) and broke it a month after i turned 16 and had to learn how to fix it since i couldnt afford to pay some one to do it. a month later i got my first old car. and ever since then ive allways had something older then me 24 years old and 46 cars later ive had my hand in quite a few diffrent types of cars. didnt get into Trad. rods/kustoms untill i got a issue of rod and custom with covrage of the 2nd billet proof.
Bought my first Model A in the early 60's. Got the money by working part time for 75 cents an hour....but the ol car was less than a hundred bucks!!!! Then bought an old Flathead from the junkyard and somehow rebuilt it and installed it and got this running as my High school car,it is amazing that I lived thru that hotrod ....I have had early hot rods in my life ever since!!!!(including my 32 5w since the end of High school)
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